Rumor: Apple to release iOS 10.3 beta with 'Theater mode' in January

A highly questionable rumor on Friday claims Apple is preparing the first beta release of iOS 10.3, thought by some to be an iPad-centric update, in early January with a new device mode called "Theater."

Without citing a source, avid Apple hardware leaker Sonny Dickson in a pair of tweets on Friday said the upcoming beta's so-called Theater mode will be accessible via a "popcorn-shaped" icon in Control Center.

What, exactly, Theater mode accomplishes or how it works is unclear, but the name suggests a set of device settings suitable for use in a movie theater. For example, users might want to quickly disable system sounds and haptic feedback, block incoming calls and messages, and reduce initial screen brightness during a movie.

Apple owns a number of patents describing similar system settings modifications, dubbed "enforcement policies," some of which date back to 2012. Unlike the manually activated Theater mode hinted at in today's rumor, Apple's IP describes a location-aware solution that triggers customized phone settings automatically based on a phone's GPS position and cellular triangulation.

Beyond the vague Theater mode rumor, Dickson claims the first iOS 10.3 beta version will be seeded to developers on Tuesday, Jan. 10.

That date lines up with AppleInsider site analytics, which shows a recent spike in visits from devices running software provisioned as "iOS 10.3." After initial and scattered hits a few months ago, visits from iOS 10.3 devices have become more frequent in the past week.

Apple's current mobile operating system version, iOS 10.2, launched earlier this month with new emoji characters, tweaks to Music on iPhone and the company's new TV app. Most recently, Apple released the second beta version of iOS 10.2.1 to public testers last week with minor bug fixes and performance improvements.

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A highly questionable rumor on Friday claims Apple is preparing the first beta release of iOS 10.3, thought by some to be an iPad-centric update, in early January with a new device mode called "Theater."

Without citing a source, avid Apple hardware leaker Sonny Dickson in a pair of tweets on Friday said the upcoming beta's so-called Theater mode will be accessible via a "popcorn-shaped" icon in Control Center.

Gotta love this... So some unknown shlep sends out some anonymous Tweets, doesn't cite a source of any kind to backup his claims, and news sites begin picking it up and re-distributing it on mass, as if it's a real news piece???

And I don't care if you say Ai cites it in the story or not, this should NEVER even be published, unless a source of the claim can be ascertained, and the claim at least traced back to the original source. This is just another Tweeting bozo looking for 5 minutes of fame by spreading fake news, which, I'm sure most Millennial's, will fall for.

A highly questionable rumor on Friday claims Apple is preparing the first beta release of iOS 10.3, thought by some to be an iPad-centric update, in early January with a new device mode called "Theater."

Without citing a source, avid Apple hardware leaker Sonny Dickson in a pair of tweets on Friday said the upcoming beta's so-called Theater mode will be accessible via a "popcorn-shaped" icon in Control Center.

Gotta love this... So some unknown shlep sends out some anonymous Tweets, doesn't cite a source of any kind to backup his claims, and news sites begin picking it up and re-distributing it on mass, as if it's a real news piece???

And I don't care if you say Ai cites it in the story or not, this should NEVER even be published, unless a source of the claim can be ascertained, and the claim at least traced back to the original source. This is just another Tweeting bozo looking for 5 minutes of fame by spreading fake news, which, I'm sure most Millennial's, will fall for.

A highly questionable rumor on Friday claims Apple is preparing the first beta release of iOS 10.3, thought by some to be an iPad-centric update, in early January with a new device mode called "Theater."

Without citing a source, avid Apple hardware leaker Sonny Dickson in a pair of tweets on Friday said the upcoming beta's so-called Theater mode will be accessible via a "popcorn-shaped" icon in Control Center.

Gotta love this... So some unknown shlep sends out some anonymous Tweets, doesn't cite a source of any kind to backup his claims, and news sites begin picking it up and re-distributing it on mass, as if it's a real news piece???

And I don't care if you say Ai cites it in the story or not, this should NEVER even be published, unless a source of the claim can be ascertained, and the claim at least traced back to the original source. This is just another Tweeting bozo looking for 5 minutes of fame by spreading fake news, which, I'm sure most Millennial's, will fall for.

He has leaked accurate info in the past that's why he deserves a story. Hence the phrase "avid Apple hardware leaker Sonny Dickson"

A highly questionable rumor on Friday claims Apple is preparing the first beta release of iOS 10.3, thought by some to be an iPad-centric update, in early January with a new device mode called "Theater."

Without citing a source, avid Apple hardware leaker Sonny Dickson in a pair of tweets on Friday said the upcoming beta's so-called Theater mode will be accessible via a "popcorn-shaped" icon in Control Center.

Gotta love this... So some unknown shlep sends out some anonymous Tweets, doesn't cite a source of any kind to backup his claims, and news sites begin picking it up and re-distributing it on mass, as if it's a real news piece???

And I don't care if you say Ai cites it in the story or not, this should NEVER even be published, unless a source of the claim can be ascertained, and the claim at least traced back to the original source. This is just another Tweeting bozo looking for 5 minutes of fame by spreading fake news, which, I'm sure most Millennial's, will fall for.

Sonny Dickson is hardly some unknown schlep. He's fairly known as a blogger who leaks upcoming Apple mobile hardware, usually with actual pieces or operating devices.

it's been suggested that theater mode is a type of dark mode. I interpret this as a dark interface option.

We've heard rumours for years now that Apple is planning to move to OLED for their iDevices. We know there are pros and cons over continuing with LCDs, but one of the pros are black pixels—they both look great and use no power, which tells me that if that transition were to come true there would have to be a UI option that considers each individual pixel for its power use, over the all-or-nothing LED backlight found in their current displays.

This means that developers will have to be made aware of this UI change before the HW is on the market, otherwise consumer satisfaction can be hindered as consumers are buying devices that aren't optimized for the new displays (I still have apps that aren't optimized for the 5.5" display).

Now this can be either through a directly or indirectly. An indirect way could be to create a Theater Mode, which may be analogous to Front Row appearing in macOS 10.4 Tiger back in 2005 and then being removed from Macs in 2007 when macOS 10.5 Leopard appeared, just after the Apple TV launched with Front Row as its UI.

Perhaps we're talking about a new interface, but first to be ironed out as simply a mode which may debut at WWDC 2017.

Perhaps we're talking about a new interface, but first to be ironed out as simply a mode which may debut at WWDC 2017.

Agreed. New interface, akin to dark mode, would be the most value-added feature regarding the rumored theater mode.

Could the said togglable feature not require developers to redesign their UI? For example, the theater mode could analyze your in-use app's code and decide how best to augment the app's UI, transforming it into a dark UI. Think of it as a more elegant inversion of colors. Meaning, a UI featuring black text on white background with colored banners and accents would be desaturated to B&W and then the colors of the text and background inverted. Plus a reduction in screen brightness to a value lower than obtainable using the brightness slider on iOS Controll Center. Done, and working on day one with no need for developers to add support.

What, exactly, Theater mode accomplishes or how it works is unclear, but the name suggests a set of device settings suitable for use in a movie theater. For example, users might want to quickly disable system sounds and haptic feedback, block incoming calls and messages, and reduce initial screen brightness during a movie.

I think I must be reading this wrong.

Are you suggesting that Apple is thinking of adding a feature that will encourage your average movie-going dipsh*t that it's okay to use an iPad in a movie theatre auditorium?

I must be reading this wrong. If I'm not then I think this is a clear warning of the dangers of drinking and blogging over the Christmas period.

What, exactly, Theater mode accomplishes or how it works is unclear, but the name suggests a set of device settings suitable for use in a movie theater. For example, users might want to quickly disable system sounds and haptic feedback, block incoming calls and messages, and reduce initial screen brightness during a movie.

I think I must be reading this wrong.

Are you suggesting that Apple is thinking of adding a feature that will encourage your average movie-going dipsh*t that it's okay to use a iPad in a movie theatre auditorium?

I must be reading this wrong. If I'm not then I think this is a clear warning of the dangers of drinking and blogging over the Christmas period.

It is even more important that adding new features (which is always welcome) to fix the flying problem with the 30% battery gate. We are thousands affected by this!! Everything started with iOS 10.1...

A highly questionable rumor on Friday claims Apple is preparing the first beta release of iOS 10.3, thought by some to be an iPad-centric update, in early January with a new device mode called "Theater."

Without citing a source, avid Apple hardware leaker Sonny Dickson in a pair of tweets on Friday said the upcoming beta's so-called Theater mode will be accessible via a "popcorn-shaped" icon in Control Center.

Gotta love this... So some unknown shlep sends out some anonymous Tweets, doesn't cite a source of any kind to backup his claims, and news sites begin picking it up and re-distributing it on mass, as if it's a real news piece???

And I don't care if you say Ai cites it in the story or not, this should NEVER even be published, unless a source of the claim can be ascertained, and the claim at least traced back to the original source. This is just another Tweeting bozo looking for 5 minutes of fame by spreading fake news, which, I'm sure most Millennial's, will fall for.

So the iPad centric update so far has zero iPad Centric features?after all why would they make rumored mode iPad only surely as stated it would be useful to all idevices.

with other here rumor has been set free without being fully formed.

Yes! There are several things that could be in play, namely:

Swift

Expansion of iCloud services

FoundationDB

New Apple File System

More Pro User support for iPads

At some point in 2017, Swift will be stable enough to be used for critical Systems Software, not just apps -- Swift has come a long way since 2014.

It appears that Apple is quite serious about expanding its iCloud offerings -- and increasing revenue from iCloud services. But, currently, iCloud provides a bunch of unrelated silos of services, Photos, iTunes Match, Synching... What is needed is some kind of common glue to amalgamate these services.

FoundationDB was acquired by Apple in March of 2015 -- 3 months after a major release of the FoundationDB system. FoundationDB is Lean, Fast, Reliable, Distributed, Scalable, Transactional (ACID) and Flexible. FDB, through a system of Layers allows multiple database architectures to share a common data store. For example, you can have an SQL Layer and several NoSQL/non-SQL db structures (Document, Graph, Hierarchical, etc.) share a common store. It is interesting that one of these structures is hierarchical -- as in an Hierarchical File System.

Apple's New File System:

Apple File System is a new, modern file system for iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. It is optimized for Flash/SSD storage and features strong encryption, copy-on-write metadata, space sharing, cloning for files and directories, snapshots, fast directory sizing, atomic safe-save primitives, and improved file system fundamentals.

It appears as if AFS can benefit from, and build upon the features of FoundationDB whether AFS is being used on a single Mac or iDevice -- or accessing the various iCloud services.

iPads, especially the iPad Pro, seem constrained for many Pro users... Apple could offer additional iOS features for iPads or a more specialized proOS for iPads. This would allow the iPad to take better advantage of: more Screen Size, Larger Battery, more RAM, more Storage, more APU/GPU Power, a KB/Cursor, better Multitasking/background processing, Direct Interconnection to other iDevices/Macs, etc. -- while still exploiting the iPad Touch UI.

A highly questionable rumor on Friday claims Apple is preparing the first beta release of iOS 10.3, thought by some to be an iPad-centric update, in early January with a new device mode called "Theater."

Without citing a source, avid Apple hardware leaker Sonny Dickson in a pair of tweets on Friday said the upcoming beta's so-called Theater mode will be accessible via a "popcorn-shaped" icon in Control Center.

Gotta love this... So some unknown shlep sends out some anonymous Tweets, doesn't cite a source of any kind to backup his claims, and news sites begin picking it up and re-distributing it on mass, as if it's a real news piece???

And I don't care if you say Ai cites it in the story or not, this should NEVER even be published, unless a source of the claim can be ascertained, and the claim at least traced back to the original source. This is just another Tweeting bozo looking for 5 minutes of fame by spreading fake news, which, I'm sure most Millennial's, will fall for.

To be fair, the threshold for news in 2016 is: "will it generate click traffic and visitor engagement for my website?" If the answer is yes, then it's news.

A highly questionable rumor on Friday claims Apple is preparing the first beta release of iOS 10.3, thought by some to be an iPad-centric update, in early January with a new device mode called "Theater."

Without citing a source, avid Apple hardware leaker Sonny Dickson in a pair of tweets on Friday said the upcoming beta's so-called Theater mode will be accessible via a "popcorn-shaped" icon in Control Center.

Gotta love this... So some unknown shlep sends out some anonymous Tweets, doesn't cite a source of any kind to backup his claims, and news sites begin picking it up and re-distributing it on mass, as if it's a real news piece???

And I don't care if you say Ai cites it in the story or not, this should NEVER even be published, unless a source of the claim can be ascertained, and the claim at least traced back to the original source. This is just another Tweeting bozo looking for 5 minutes of fame by spreading fake news, which, I'm sure most Millennial's, will fall for.

To be fair, the threshold for news in 2016 is: "will it generate click traffic and visitor engagement for my website?" If the answer is yes, then it's news.

Yup, and I don't see it getting any better.

I think paid news sites is the way forward, but how do you know whether or not some big corporation isn't paying them more?